Uotaky engine



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SYLVESTER STEVENS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ROTARY ENGINE.

Specication of Letters Patent No. 13,107, dated June 19, 1855.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, SYLvEsTER STEVENS, of Boston, in the county ofSuffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and ImprovedDouble-Action Disk Engine. of which the following is a full, clear, andexact description, reference being had to the annexed drawings, makingpart of this specification, in which* Figure 1 is a plan; Fig. 2, anelevation; Fig. 3, a sectional elevation; Figs. 4L, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,details which will be referred to hereafter.

The nature of my invention consists in dividing the cylinder into twoseparate and distinct chambers or cylinders, which are separated fromeach other by a revolving disk, to which are attached the two pistons,one for each cylinder. These pistons in lieu of being placed opposite toeach other are set a short distance apart so as not to receive theirsteam at the same instant, whereby the single disk with its two pistonsis enabled to pass the dead center as surely as where two cylinders withcranks set quartering are employed. To enable others skilled in the artto understand my invention I will proceed to describe the manner inwhich I have carried it out.

Inthe accompanying drawings C, C, is an annular cylinder which isdivided by the circular disk D into two separate cylinders a a (Fig. 5)in each of which plays a piston b, b. These pistons are attached to thedisk D, and revolve with it. In lieu of being set opposite to each otherthey are so placed that one shall lead the other a certain distance,that it may take steam before the other commences to exhaust, lby whichmeans the two pistons assist each other past their dead points. Therevolving disk is secured to the driving shaft E through which the poweris transmitted from the machine. For convenience of construction thecylinder is cast in two portions C, C', which are united at the joint c,and suitably secured together by bolts or otherwise. The pistons may bepacked by triangular metallic plates, separated from each other bysprings` or otherwise. This however forms no part of my presentinvention and need not be further described.

That there may be no unnecessary leakage from one of the cylinders a, a,to the other, the disk D is caused to revolve in a circular groove al.When the two cylinders are filled with steam there is no leakage thatcan result in loss of power or of steam. To prevent leakage from onecylinder to the other at the instant of the exhaust, the portion of theperiphery of the disk between the two valves is packed with a metallicor other packingf (Fig. 4).

I will now explain the manner in which the abutment valves are operated.Each cylinder is furnished with its abutment valve, one only of which isrepresented at g, Fig. 3, the other being precisely similar to it; thisvalve is attached to the short shaft m, to which is secured the arm h,which carries at its outer extremity the pin 'L'.

F is a disk secured to the driving shaft E, and revolving therewith; thepin n projecting from the face of this disk strikes upon the arm h, andraises the abutment valve out of the way of the pistons; when this hasbeen accomplished the pin n passes from beneath th-e arm z., and thelatter falls, to prevent the sudden fall of the abutment valve upon itsseat the pin z' upon the arm h, strikes upon the pin c-which relievesits fall, and the next instant the pin passes from off the end of thisspring and the valve closes. The arrangement-s for operating the otherabutment valve are similar to those just described, though but one ofthem is shown in the drawings.

The steam valves and the method in which they are operated will now bedescribed.

G is the steam chest-p, p the valves.

I-I are eccentrics which through the arms I communicate a vibratorymotion to the shafts K, K', these shafts carry the fingers 11, r', thatoperate the valves (Fig. 8) they being rais-ed by the finger r, anddepressed by r; by altering the position of the fingers 1 they may bemade to close the valves at any point of the stroke, and thus the steammay be worked expansively. The exhaust ports s, s, are seen in Fig. 7.

It now remains only to explain the manner in which the joint g betweenthe inner wall of the cylinder and the revolving disk is packed.

t is a groove into which is dropped first a metallic ring u, next anindia rubber ring fv, and lastly a metallic packing ring w- There is acorresponding groove in the disk D into which the packing ring wprojects, the inner ring u is set up for the purpose of tightening thepacking by means of the screws 2. The joint between the disk D and WhatI claim as my invention and dethe cylinder is oiled by means of the oilsire to secure by Letters Patent is cup M. It is evident that the abovede- The revolving disk D with its valves b, Zn', scribed engine may beused as a Water enoperating in the manner substantially as 5 gine, asuitable enlargement of the size of herein set forth.

the ports only being required. The engine may be made reversible by adouble set of SYLVESTER STEVENS' valves, or otherwise, and may be WorkedWitnesses: upon the 10W pressure principle by the ad- SAM. COOPER, 10dition ofthe suitable attachments. JOHN S. CLOWS.

